Music Education Opportunities

Leadership Academy (formerly COTS)

Each year the district holds a weekend Leadership Academy that's aimed at providing chapter officers (and others) with the skills they'll need to manage and support chapter activities. Leadership Academy includes several general sessions, plus a variety of 1-hour and 2-hour classes. The information provided during this weekend is current, well presented, and invaluable - both for the attendees and for the chapters that will benefit from their skills and knowledge during the coming year. Every chapter is encouraged to send as many members of its leadership team as possible, every year.

Harmony Camp

Harmony Camp, held each summer in Columbus, Ohio and conducted by the Singing Buckeyes Chapter of the Barbershop Harmony Society, is a world-renowned program for high-school students. Here's what you get:

• Four days of fun for high school students, both young men and women, interested in vocal performance.
• The camp will be held at The Ohio State University. (Click "Forms / Info" at left for address.)
• Professional vocal instruction at an affordable price.
• An opportunity to sing with and learn from talented performers.
• A crash course in the intricacies of four-part, a cappella harmony.
• Instruction and experience in singing technique and stage presence.
• A performance in front of more than 2,000 barbershop enthusiasts.
• Special attention will be given to student quartets.
• A chance to make new friends from across the state.

If you're interested in learning more about Harmony Camp, including schedules, costs, scholarships, sponsorships, and directions, here's where you can find the latest information about the upcoming Harmony Camp.

Standing Ovation Program (SOP)

There's a new voluntary Society-wide program, implemented at the District level, that is bound to help choruses and quartets everywhere improve their public performance packages. The program is appropriately called the Standing Ovation Program, because chapters and quartets that choose to take advantage of it are bound to get a bunch more Standing O's from their audiences when they perform in public. Any chapter that wants to help its chorus and quartets to present a better public performance package should read more details here.

Apple Corps

Apple Corps, our annual music education camp and my all-time favorite JAD event, happens every year the second weekend in June at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. Plan to go - every year. There's no better musical fun and learning value in the known universe! As soon as it's available, you can download each year's class schedules and registration information for Apple Corps here on the SingJAD Web site.

• Apple Corps class descriptions and schedules
• Individual registration form
• Quartet registration form

Harmony Foundation

The Harmony Foundation coordinates many programs to serve the Charitable mission of SPEBSQSA. The program most critical to our Society's future is the Endowment Program. An endowment is a fund in which the principal, or corpus, is invested and can never be spent. Only the earnings from endowments may be used. Endowments essentially last "forever." Endowment earnings can provide grants or services for many of our Society's needs, and the larger the endowment, the more grants and services we can provide.

The Harmony Foundation's Endowment Program currently has over $860,000 in assets. There are many more financial commitments to the Endowment Program in end-of-lifetime gifts from dedicated Barbershoppers like yourself. Do you have Harmony Foundation or SPEBSQSA in your will?

Working together, we can help future generations Sing ... for life!

Hey! Are you in college? Wanna compete?

The Barbershop Harmony Society and Bank of America sponsor a Collegiate Barbershop Quartet Contest (CBQC) that could be your ticket to the barbershoppers' international convention. You can find out everything you need to know about the CBQC here, at the BHS Web site.

Youth In Harmony

JAD's youth outreach program is now called Youth in Harmony (YMIH). JAD now has a separate Web site devoted specifically to the Youth in Harmony program. It's packed with useful information, links, and forms that will be of interest to you whether you're a high-school age singer interested in barbershopping or a vocal-music teacher looking for resources to help you introduce barbershop harmony to your kids.

Here's where you can visit the JAD YIH site!

For more information about any of these outstanding events for young people, e-mail JAD's VP Youth in Harmony, Terry Reichenbach (terryr@q1.net), or call him at home at cell # 419-306-0374. You can also explore Barbershop Harmony Society's YIH program on the Society's Web site.